dancing with the dead and dying
by tonberrys
Summary: A collection of Death Eater drabbles/short one-shots. [1. Barty will never be enough for his father, but in the Dark Lord, he finds a solution.]
1. Table of Contents

This will be a collection of drabbles/short one-shots about Death Eaters. The (generally unrelated) installments will explore a variety of Death Eaters at different ages and in different circumstances. Some Death Eater content will be posted as separate one-shots outside of this collection, but the shorter ones will usually be dropped in here.

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 _dancing with the dead and dying_

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Table of Contents

2\. **Beautiful Efficiency** – [Barty Jr.] – K+ – _Barty will never be enough for his father, but in the Dark Lord, he finds a solution._


	2. Barty: Beautiful Efficiency

**Note:** I'm a Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments). This was written for Assignment 8, Performing Arts: Halloween Monologues, Task #4 \- Write about someone wants to be loved and goes about it the wrong way.

Additional prompts listed at the end.

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 **Beautiful Efficiency**

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As a young child, Barty had believed his father loved him. When his mother had insisted that those lofty standards and empty chairs at dinner were his father's way of loving them, Barty had allowed himself to believe it with the sharp solidity of a knife. The year he turned seven, the flayed strips of that belief had begun to form into flimsy dreams of what it would be like to earn the love of one's father. He saw other children, sometimes; they were boys and girls whose parents also worked in the Ministry, of course, because work events were the only sort of frivolity that his father deemed worthy of their time. Those children were idiots, for the most part, like the chattery Bertha Jorkins—an older girl who gossiped like she breathed—or Auror Dawlish's bucktoothed son who always wanted to play Exploding Snap and was obsessed with birds. Barty had found them boring, but there had been little choice in companions, back then.

Barty could choose now. Barty had chosen a life of greatness and ambition, the night he was sorted into Slytherin, but it was not his father's ambition.

Five years had passed since then. On this night, Barty was standing before the Dark Lord with a thudding heart and the thrumming buzz of anticipation sounding in his head. A thick forest surrounded their moonlit clearing and heat the summer holidays had thickened the air with no breeze to lift the worst of it from their jet-black robes. In any other situation, Barty might've felt miserable, but the thrill of the night made the warmth feel headier than anything. Standing in their masked cluster, purpose writhed beneath his skin, seeping up through the pores like a glorious stain: the Dark Mark.

The Mark was a tangible promise made to the true hero of their time. His Lord recognised greatness, and Barty knew how to be great—reaching too high, fighting too hard, but never toppling off. No longer would Barty have to feel the sting of disappointment and criticism that always shot from his father's eyes like barrage of needles. Those needles pricked Barty, tried to stitch him like one of Mother's crafts, but Barty was clipping the thread. He doubted his father would even notice.

The next initiate had stepped up before the Dark Lord, who lifted his bone-white wand high in the air with a flourish that pulled away the mask. All Barty could see was the hooded back of the new Death Eater's head, but the mask had looked a little bit like Rosier's. The extent of their ranks were meant to be shrouded even from each other, beyond social circle and necessity. It was mildly uncomfortable but nonetheless prudent when it came to the chances of someone getting captured. Even as they mingled, Barty preferred to be hidden from those who would betray him to his father for selfish gain. Even here, there were bottom feeders clinging to the strongest presence around.

Everything had to be perfect, every guise kept in place. Maintaining the balance meant remaining the golden boy his father claimed to want but never seemed to accept, and Barty had become well-practiced in that, at least.

Beside him, Regulus was staring forward at the scene, hidden behind his own mask. Through his mind's eye, Barty imagined the focused intensity, each muscle in his friend's face pulled as taut as the stiff line of his shoulders. Tracing down the line of Regulus's arm with his eyes, Barty pictured the inky skull and its serpent emblazoned beneath the sleeve of his robes. A promise of service—a promise of greatness.

The wizarding world was dirty, smeared with their lessers, and Barty knew that was important to address. Regulus sometimes spoke of the ideological side of it, pulling his own legacy around his shoulders like a cloak, though the rhetoric increased ten-fold the moment they were in the same room as Bellatrix Lestrange. Barty did not blame him, blatant though it was; if Barty's father had even been as exceptional as Regulus's cousin, Barty would still be trying to impress him, too.

Ideology was important, but the hunger gnawing at Barty's insides fixated with a more focused purpose. That hunger yearned for validation in the eyes of the Dark Lord—and a satisfying comeuppance for the father who had invariably denied him.

The Dark Lord was powerful, more powerful than any other, and someday soon, everything would change. One day, Barty's father might wake up to what he was losing, might rediscover that sliver of a heart that Barty supposed his mother must have seen at some point. He would not be waiting for his father's open arms, but he was nonetheless waiting for that day. The climb to gain the Dark Lord's attention would be satisfying, and the possibility of someday rejecting his father's tainted love would be just as much so.

In this, there was a beautiful efficiency. In this, he would find what he deserved.

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 **Additional Author's Notes**

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 **Applicable Hogwarts Prompts:**

Assignment 8, Performing Arts: Halloween Monologues, Task #4 \- Write about someone wants to be loved and goes about it the wrong way.

Insane House Challenge \- 581. (plot point) Seeking Revenge  
365 Day Challenge \- 129. (event) Summer holidays  
The Marauders' Map, Greenhouse One & Ravenclaw Tower Staircase \- 14. (word) Dirty, 80. (action) Holding wand in the air  
Fortnightly Challenges, Princess Lessons, Mulan \- 8. (trait) Strategic  
Fortnightly Challenges, Around the Board, The Burrow \- 1. Write about family  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Obscurus & Brazil \- 5. (word) Dark, 24. Write about a celebration  
Autumn Seasonal Challenges, Autumn Prompts \- (weather) Warm  
Autumn Seasonal Challenges, Flowers, Goldenrod \- (phrase) 'Golden boy/girl'  
Autumn Seasonal Challenges, Audrey's Dessert Challenge, Premade Cakes, Cake 4 \- Write about never being satisfied  
Autumn Seasonal Challenges, Ravenclaw Prompts, Traits \- (trait) Hard-Working  
Writing Club, Character Appreciation, Sirius \- 1. (era) Marauder  
Writing Club, Lizzy's Loft, Daniel Howell \- 3. (color) Black  
Writing Club, Book Club, The Hate U Give, Big Mav \- 4. (relationship) Father & Child, (word) Powerful, (emotion) Disappointment  
Writing Club, Showtime, Prologue/Transition \- 1. (word) Balance  
Writing Club, Amber's Attic, Heathers \- 1. Write about faking something [5 bonus points]  
Writing Club, Count Your Buttons \- S5. (song) Fireball - Pitbull ft John Ryan, O4. (object) Mask, W3. (word) Fixated  
Writing Club, Lyric Alley, "You Don't Own Me" \- 1. You don't own me  
Writing Club, Ami's Audio Admirations, The Adventure Zone, Petals to the Metal \- 10. (object) Mask  
Writing Club, Sophie's Shelf, Guy Fawkes Night, The Gunpowder Plot, Conspirators \- 3. Write about any group organization  
Writing Club, Emy's Emporium, Gingerbread Men \- 6. Write about someone with a manipulative personality

Word Count \- 831


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